The Detroit Lions remain in the thick of the NFC playoff race and are also in contention for another NFC North title. That might be a minor miracle considering some of the issues they have dealt with in 2025.
Not only has there been the usual smattering of devastating injuries, but the Lions have effectively replaced offensive coordinator John Morton with Dan Campbell on the fly. Now, Campbell has to juggle all the duties of a head coach while calling all the plays.
So far, the Lions have fared well, going 2-1 in games with Campbell leading the offense. But for as good as he's been with the play sheet, things may be slipping in his other duties. The in-game flow could be suffering badly with Campbell pre-occupied offensively.
ESPN's Mike Greenberg watched Detroit's 34-27 comeback win over the New York Giants and admitted he believes Campbell is being hurt by having to juggle too many things at once as head coach, leading him to an important decision.
Dan Campbell has to either give up calling plays or have someone else handle game
management. Too much fell through the cracks again today. #Lions
— Mike Greenberg (@Espngreeny) November 23, 2025
It's true that since Campbell has taken over the offense, there have been more notable mistakes with regards to timeout usage and decision making. Campbell has spoken in the past about how locked-in he has to be with regards to calling the offense, so it's likely Greenberg is right and some things are being badly overlooked. Sunday's game proved why that is the case.
Campbell's explanation of second-half gaffe helps prove Greenberg's point
Now that Campbell has to call plays, he has suffered a lack of attention to detail as a game manager. Against the Giants, there was a huge sequence late which proved why this is the case.
With the Lions driving late in the fourth-quarter to tie the game, Jared Goff spiked the ball to stop the clock, but a timeout was used from the sideline. It wasn't an ideal situation to see Detroit waste a timeout with the clock already stopped. That was a miscommunication which fell at the feet of Campbell.
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After the game, Campbell didn't have a great answer for what happened on the sequence, other than to say it was a mistake between him and the players, and the Lions were lucky no further damage was done.
"So, the headset communication. I don't know what happened with that to be honest with you. I just know I couldn't get to (Jared Goff). I don't know if something happened. I don't know (with) the procedure of what goes on for me, from me to him. It was just one of those oddball weird deals where thank God it didn't cost us to where I had to use (the timeout later)."
Campbell isn't likely to give up calling plays given the way the offense has performed, but it might be smart for the coach to enlist outside assistance with his other duties in the form of a consultant to help with flow. Eventually, a game management error could end up hurting the Lions in a game they badly need down the stretch.
Right now, Campbell is juggling plenty of things and keeping the Lions on track. It's been good for Detroit, but at a certain point, it could cost them in a big way if a solution isn't explored to assist him.